‘Instant Lab’ Prints Digital Snaps Right Off Your iPhone’s Screen

Today we’re surrounded by photos. Yet how many actually end up on our walls?

In the interest of making the moments we capture more lasting, several companies have proposed devices that will turn our digital photos into analog keepsakes. The newest is the Impossible Project’s “Instant Lab,” which transfers your iPhone photos to instant film.

During its first day on Kickstarter the project was well on its way to meeting its $250,00 goal by raking in more than $150,000.

“Digital images look great, but there is one big disappointment: They don’t exist in reality, they are not real,” says Impossible Project co-founder Florian Kaps about the decision to build the device.

Since the demise of Polaroid, the Impossible Project has been the only company manufacturing instant film for several of the most iconic Polaroid cameras, including the Polaroid 600 and the SX-70. It’s based in the Netherlands and makes its products in an old Polaroid factory.

Since it first started producing film products two years ago the company has built a strong following among instant-film enthusiasts. But Kaps says they wanted to expand their reach, and cellphone photography was an obvious market.

“I, like a lot of people, take 95 percent of my images with the iPhone,” he says.

At the moment the Instant Lab only works with the iPhone 4 or 4S, but Kaps says the company plans to expand to Android and will make an adapter for the iPhone 5.

Users start by opening the Instant Lab app and choosing or taking the photo they want to project. The app then automatically sets the brightness and the time the phone screen will be on (just like the timer on a photo enlarger) to ensure that the film is properly exposed.

The user then sets a timer built into the app, places the phone into a cradle on top of a set of “bellows,” and opens the shutter above the film. When the timer goes off it triggers the camera to expose the film and the user closes the shutter and ejects the film like an old Polaroid camera.

Kaps says the Impossible Project already has a working prototype and will be using the Kickstarter money for the initial tooling and manufacturing costs. They’ve partnered with DHW Fototechnik, a company based in an old Rollei camera factory in Braunschweig, Germany, to build the final products.

“Obviously there is a lot of excitement based on our first day [on Kickstarter],” Kaps says.

Kaps says the Instant Lab will retail for $299 but backers on Kickstarter can still get the camera for $189. The company offered 222 backers the opportunity to buy an Instant Lab for $149, but that pledge tier sold out in under two hours. The film for the Instant Lab will sell for $24 for a pack of nine.

In terms of delivery dates Kaps says he hopes to have the Instant Lab in backers’ hands by February of next year and on the market by March.